Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered Venezuela's military to prepare for a possible armed conflict with Colombia, saying his country's soldiers should be ready if the United States attempts to provoke a war between the South American neighbors.

Chavez said Venezuela could end up going to war with Colombia as tensions between them rise, and he warned that if a conflict broke out "it could extend throughout the whole continent."

"The best way to avoid war is preparing for it," Chavez told military officers during his weekly television and radio program. Venezuela's socialist leader has also cited a recent deal between Bogota and Washington giving US troops greater access to military bases as a threat to regional stability.

The government of Colombian President Alvaro rejected what it called "threats of war from Venezuela's government," saying it would protest Chavez's comments to the Organization of American States and the UN Security Council.

The latest trigger seems to be the Colombian Army's transgression into a Venezuelan river border, and prior to that, a Colombian military raid into Ecuador on a rebel camp that sparked a regional crisis in March last year.

There's long been a history of simmering tensions between the two. Colombia's four-decade old drug conflict has often spilled over into Venezuela, and Chavez has been accused by Bogota and Washington of providing logistical and military support to FARC rebels because of his ideological closeness. Even a cross-border pipeline deal in the works between the two countries and a seeming rapport-buildup between Alvaro and Chavez couldn't dissipate the underlying tensions, and the two countries raised the specter of war after Colombia's illegal March 1 raid into Ecuador drew troop movements from Quito and Caracas. Now both sides are gunnin' for a rumble, Colombia has approached the Organization of American states and Chavez has threatened to declare 'outright war'.

BOGOTA — In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers on Friday signed a pact giving American personnel expanded access to military bases in this drug-producing country, a deal that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region's security.

Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the 10-year deal takes effect immediately and restricts U.S. military operations to Colombian territory — alluding to fears expressed by leftist leaders in the region that it would make Colombia a base for asserting U.S. power in South America.

Details of the pact, which aims to boost drug and counterinsurgency operations, were not immediately released. But Colombia said in a statement that it "respects the principles of equal sovereignty, territorial integrity and nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states."

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the accord "does not signal, anticipate or authorize an increase in the presence of U.S. military or civilian personnel in Colombia."

Officials have said it would expand U.S. access to seven Colombian bases while maintaining at 1,400 the cap on military personnel and contractors specified by U.S. law. Bermudez said that with the pact Colombia was seeking to improve its communications and intelligence capabilities, for which U.S. cooperation has already been a boon.

U.S. counter-drug flights that previously operated out of Manta, Ecuador, will now be based at the Palanquero base in the central Magdalena valley and Navy port calls will be more frequent.

"We are not bringing U.S. soldiers to Colombia for combat," Bermudez told reporters. "We're not going to see an unusual number of U.S. military personnel, nor U.S. planes in excess. What we're going to see is what we've always seen."

The top U.S. Defense Department official for Latin America, Frank Mora, told The Associated Press in August there would be no "U.S. offensive capacity" such as fighter jets from any of the bases. U.S. construction is, however, planned at Palanquero to expand facilities.

The State Department noted that "U.S. personnel presence has been in a gradual decline" in Colombia, a trend it said it expected to continue. U.S. law specifies that no more than 800 U.S. military personnel and 600 civilian contractors may be in country at any one time. Currently, there are 230 U.S. service personnel and 400 contractors in Colombia, Bermudez said.

President Chavez, who survived a 2002 coup attempt that he claims was U.S.-backed, has said Washington could use the bases agreement to destabilize the region.

South America's main power broker, President Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, however, dropped his initial objections after senior U.S. officials and Colombia's conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, made separate visits to explain it.

Uribe also assured regional leaders at an August summit that U.S. military operations would be restricted to Colombian territory, where a half-century-old leftist insurgency persists as well as violence related to drug trafficking.

Critics of the accord say it sends the wrong signal to Colombia's neighbors, especially given that the Andean nation remains the world's No. 1 cocaine producer despite receiving more than $4 billion in U.S. military aid since 2000.

"At a time when we should be pursuing every kind of diplomatic avenue to reduce tensions, this appears to be a military decision that may increase tension," said George Withers of the liberal U.S. think tank Washington Office on Latin America.

Under the pact, U.S. military personnel will continue to enjoy diplomatic immunity, exempting them from local criminal prosecution. Some Colombians objected to that, citing a case of two U.S. servicemen accused in 2007 of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. The two have since left the country.

Asked Friday about the case, the U.S. Embassy referred to a statement it issued in August saying there was currently "insufficient evidence to prosecute the two U.S. service members involved."

Increased U.S. military assistance has been key to the recent weakening of the country's main leftist rebel group. The U.S. military has offices at armed forces headquarters and advisers attached to army divisions.

Although there's no evidence of any direct correlation, the boost in aid and cooperation also has coincided with a sharp increase in extrajudicial killings by Colombia's military.

Two unidentified members of the US military, left,
leave Colombia's Ministry of Affairs headquarters in Bogota,
Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. In a private, low-key ceremony, the US
ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield and three
Colombian ministers signed a pact Friday to expand Washington's
military's presence, a deal that Venezuela's President Hugo
Chavez has called a threat to the region's security.
(AP Photo/Christian Escobar Mora)

In this photo released by Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
press office, US ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield,
second left, and Colombia's Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez,
second right, sign a bilateral agreement as Colombia's Interior
and Justice Minister Fabio Valencia, left, and Colombia's
Defense Minister Gabriel Silva, right, look on at the San Carlos
palace in Bogota, Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. In a private, low-key
ceremony, the US ambassador and three Colombian ministers
signed a pact Friday to expand Washington's military's presence,
a deal that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has called a
threat to the region's security. (AP Photo/Colombia Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Maria Alexandra Maldonado)

President Hugo Chavez has accused the US of violating Venezuela's airspace with an unmanned spy plane, and ordered his military to shoot down any such aircraft in the future.

Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Mr Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighbouring Colombia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage.
"These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela," he said.

I've ordered them to be shot down," Mr Chavez said of the aircraft. "We cannot permit this."

He has accused Colombia of allowing the United States to use its military bases to prepare a possible attack against Venezuela.
Both the US and Colombia have denied such allegations in the past, saying the US military presence is for the sole purpose of combating drug trafficking.

A spokeswoman for the US Embassy said the mission had no information about any flyover and had not been contacted by Mr Chavez's administration.

"If the Venezuelan government would like to speak with us about any issue, we would welcome discussions because we seek open dialogue with all nations in the hemisphere," spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer said.
It is not uncommon for Mr Chavez to accuse other nations, especially the U.S. and its allies, of conspiring against Venezuela.

Last week, the president accused the Netherlands of letting the US military use Dutch islands off Venezuela's Caribbean coast to prepare for a possible military offensive. The former paratroop commander said the US military has sent intelligence agents, warships and spy planes to Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire, which are self-governing Dutch islands.

The Dutch government rejected the allegations and the country's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, has asked Venezuela's ambassador to clarify the claims, Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Rijs said.

Rijs said US soldiers do use civilian air fields on Curaçao and Aruba, but only for anti-drug trafficking efforts.

Tensions between Venezuela and neighbouring Colombia have been tense for months due to Mr Chavez's accusations of warmongering and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's allegations that Venezuela has allowed Colombian rebel leaders to seek refuge there.

Mr Chavez denied on Sunday that his socialist government is protecting Marxist guerrillas andwarned Colombia's military against sending soldiers across the border.

This man is the greatest joker of Latin America. He does not have moeny to maintain his oil fields and has nationalised the entire oil industry. We in india have seen such affects of nationalisation where we missed almost one decade of progress because of such retrograde steps.

plane that twice entered Venezuelan skies on Friday, but Washington said none of its planes flew over the South American country's airspace.

Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Chavez said the overflight was the latest violation of Venezuelan airspace by the U.S. military from its bases on the Netherlands' Caribbean islands and from neighboring Colombia.

"They are provoking us ... these are warplanes," he said.

Chavez said the F-16s escorted the U.S. plane away after two incursions lasting 15 and 19 minutes each.

A spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department denied Chavez's assertion, saying in an e-mail: "We can confirm no U.S. military aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace today. As a matter of policy we do not fly over a nation's airspace without prior consent or coordination."

Senior Obama administration officials said the U.S. Southern Command was unaware of any incident involving U.S. government aircraft in Venezuelan airspace on Friday.

The perceived threat of U.S. intervention has become a central element of Chavez's political discourse and a rallying cry for his supporters.

Foes say Latin America's loudest U.S. critic is hyping the idea of a foreign threat to distract Venezuelans from domestic problems such as economic recession, rampant crime and inadequate public services.

The socialist leader surprised the diplomatic world in December when he accused the Netherlands of abetting potential offensive action against his government by granting U.S. troops access to its islands close to Venezuela.

The Dutch government says the U.S. presence on Curacao and Aruba -- where about 250 Air Force crew and ground staff are based -- is only for counternarcotics and surveillance operations over Caribbean smuggling routes.

The Colombian military is a joke; they can't even defeat the drug lords and rebels that terrorize the Colombian population and control large swathes of territory.

How are they going to defeat another country??

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With Uncle Sam's blessing. Though I don't like Socialist government of Venezuela, I think this Columbia-Venezuela conflict is going Georgia-Russia way. If indeed Columbia is guilty of drawing the first blood and infiltrating, Chavez would unleash hell on them. VAF in 2 years will have 60+ Su-30MKV2s, the guy is in talks with Medvedev to become the international launch customer for the Su-35BM (after we rejected) an estimated 50 units according to some reports, and has also gone on a spending spree to get Mi-28 Night Hunters and even considered Ka-52. Apart from this, the dude has offered Russia to use Venezuela as a military base for itself in South America.

For South America, this is really a lot of firepower. At this rate, Venezuela will become second strongest in the continent after Brazil or maybe even rival them.

Socialist/Communist/wannabe governments always are over-obsessed with military development, forgetting civilian life. Jokers!:emot175: